"Tiger Effect" Hits Wall Street During U.S. Open Playoff

As the U.S. Open playoff wore on yesterday, I just got the feeling that everyone on Wall Street was watching the battle between Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate. How could they not? It was like a second Sunday.

With action starting at noon and finishing past the close, it theoretically slowed down four hours of the trading day. Well, this morning, I got the hard numbers from our number cruncher Ariel Nelson.

Check this out:

Average New York Stock Exchange Volume, between 12-4 pm. (last 30 days): 781.5 million shares traded.

New York Stock Exchange Volume between 12-4 pm (yesterday): 709.9 million shares traded.

That's a drop in trading on the NYSE of 9.2 percent. In fact, it was the lowest trading day since the Friday and Tuesday that sandwiches Memorial Day weekend.